An Easy Fix: White Roofs

Roofs make up 25% of the surface of most cities, and pavement about 35%. Replacing dark roofs and asphalt with white roofs and light colored paving such as concrete would cool buildings, lower temperatures in cities, reduce smog and lower energy needs.

Hashem Akbari, a physicist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, reports in a recent study that if all roofs and pavement were replace with more reflective material in 100 major urban areas, 44 billion metric tons of CO2 would be offset, more than all the countries on earth emit in a year. Given that some three quarters of building stock in the US, at least, is predicted to be new or renovated by 2030, the usefulness of putting appropriate rules in place for new and renovated buildings is evident. The study will be published in the journal Climate Change and was presented at the Climate Change Research Conference.

Read the rest of November's In Motion articles in the digital edition of CitiesGoGreen.

Set as favorite

Email This

Comments (0) Add Comment